District overview
Chino Valley Unified School District
How Chino Valley Unified is governed and paid for, and what its board is working on now.
Who pays for Chino Valley's schools, and who decides?
Chino Valley Unified serves the cities of Chino and Chino Hills in San Bernardino County. Like almost every California district its day-to-day money comes from the state through the Local Control Funding Formula, which pays a base amount per student plus extra for low-income students, English learners and foster youth. That money follows attendance, so enrolment drives the budget. Buildings are paid for separately, out of Measure G, the local bond voters approved and repay through property taxes. The five-member Board of Education is elected by trustee area and meets twice a month in the district board room on Ramona Avenue; a student member sits with the board and casts a recorded preferential vote on most items. Chino Valley certified a positive financial condition on both of its interim reports this year, meaning it told the county it can meet its obligations this year and for the two years after.
Money for classrooms comes from the state; money for buildings comes from Measure G
The board adopted the 2026/2027 budget on June 18, 2026 and set the Gann appropriations limit at $211,150,977 for 2025/2026, up from $202,838,025 the year before. Construction runs on a separate track: the Measure G bond oversight committee reported on September 18, 2025 that about $767.5 million of bonds have been issued, $623.2 million spent and $109.9 million is left.
A five-member board elected by trustee area - with one seat filled by appointment
When Trustee Area 4 fell vacant the board did not call an election. On September 3, 2025 it read seven eligible candidates into the record under Board Bylaw 9223, and on September 8 it interviewed them and appointed Shaun Smith by a 4-0 vote under Education Code 5091. He was sworn in the same night. Board president Sonja Shaw and members John Cervantes, Andrew Cruz and James Na hold the other four seats.
Staff pay is the budget, and every group got a rise this year
The board ratified reopener agreements with the teachers' union and the classified union on April 16, 2026, then on June 18 approved higher salary schedules for both unions plus management, confidential staff, the executive cabinet and the superintendent, all effective July 1, 2026. A proposed 2.25% increase for board members themselves failed 2-3 on April 16.
An unusually heavy legal load for a district this size
Every agenda in this period lists a standing consent item paying three outside law firms, and the closed-session litigation list grew from five existing cases in November 2025 to seven by June 2026. Four separate unfair-practice cases brought by the teachers' union sit before the state Public Employment Relations Board, and one, Decision No. 3017, has already gone against the district.
None of this means the district is badly run. Chino Valley certified a positive financial condition on both interim reports, every school earned platinum PBIS designation for school climate, Chino High, Chino Hills High, Canyon Hills Junior High and Townsend Junior High were named California Distinguished Schools in March 2026, Levi Dickey Elementary became one of the first national demonstration schools for the AVID programme, and the Measure G oversight committee's audits found no discrepancies or non-compliance. The disputes described here are concentrated in a small number of contested policies, not in the district's academic or financial management.
Where the district stands
Up from $202,838,025 for 2024-25. The Gann limit is the ceiling California sets on how much tax-funded spending a district may appropriate in a year; it is a rough proxy for the size of the operating budget, not the budget itself.
Of which $623.2 million has been spent and $109.9 million remains. Reported by the Citizens' Oversight Committee, which met four times in 2024-25 and said financial and performance audits showed no discrepancies or non-compliance.
14% of the $767.5 million issued. Everything still on the district's building list - the Ayala performing arts centre, the Don Lugo administration building and pool, turf, asphalt and waterline work - competes for this remainder.
Up $50 from $350, approved June 18, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026. Home-to-school transport still draws about $9,000,000 a year out of the general fund even after families pay this fee.
Called an encroachment because transport costs more than its dedicated funding and the difference is taken from money that would otherwise go to classrooms. The 2026-27 bus pass increase recovers about $15,000 of it.
Cases LA-CE-6828-E, 6974-E, 7048-E and 7106-E, all brought by the Associated Chino Teachers, appear on closed-session agendas between November 2025 and February 2026. One, Decision No. 3017, has already been decided against the district and is under appeal.
Four principals and eight assistant principals appointed between June 4 and July 16, 2026, all effective at the start of the 2026-27 school year. Counted from the closed-session reports in the June 4, June 18 and July 16, 2026 minutes.
15 agenda packets, 10 sets of approved minutes, the bell schedule and three board policies, covering September 3, 2025 to August 20, 2026. None required optical character recognition and none was unreadable.
Major projects
Ruben S. Ayala High School Performing Arts Center
Under construction, contracts awarded, one contractor dispute settledA purpose-built performing arts venue at Ayala High School, the largest new-build job still running under Measure G. The board awarded Bid No. 25-26-10F on May 7, 2026 across more than twenty trade packages covering modular buildings, roofing, flooring, fire protection, electrical and landscaping, then added an electrical package on May 21. In June the board settled a dispute with one of the electrical contractors. Ayala's percussion ensemble placed first in the world at the 2026 Winter Guard International championships and currently performs without a dedicated venue.
- Board awards Bid No. 25-26-10F across more than twenty trade packages
- Bid Package 26-01 awarded to Southern California West Coast Electric
- Board directs counsel to accept a settlement with Mel Smith Electric on the project
Funding
Measure G bond programme, which has $109.9 million of its $767.5 million issuance left
Don Lugo High School administration building, kitchen and pool renovation
Substantially complete; change orders and notices of completion approved package by packageA multi-package rebuild at Don Lugo High School covering a new administration building, the kitchen and the pool, tendered as Bid No. 23-24-20F. The board worked through more than thirty separate change orders and notices of completion for individual bid packages across the April and May 2026 meetings, which is how a job of this size closes out. A painting project and stadium and tennis court lighting upgrades at nearby schools finished in the same period.
- Notice of completion approved for the Don Lugo High School painting project
- Change orders and notices of completion approved for eleven bid packages
- Change orders and notices of completion approved for eleven further bid packages
- Notice of completion for the Don Lugo High School tennis courts on the agenda
Funding
Measure G bond programme
Labour board rulings and the parental notification injunction
Live: one adverse ruling under appeal, three further cases pending, one court motion filedTwo connected legal fights run through the whole year. The state Public Employment Relations Board decided in June 2025 that the district adopted Board Policy 6115 on classroom flag displays and its parental notification policies without bargaining with the teachers' union, and ordered both rescinded; the district appealed and the board discussed the decision in open session on May 7, 2026 without acting. Separately, a court had issued a permanent injunction against the district over parental notification, and on March 19, 2026 the board directed its lawyers to move to dissolve that injunction, citing Mirabelli v. Olson and a subsequent Supreme Court order. Neither outcome is settled.
- PERB rules the district violated the Educational Employment Relations Act and orders both policies rescinded
- Board authorises a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit; union reads the PERB ruling into the record
- Four separate PERB cases appear on the closed-session list
- Board directs counsel to move to dissolve the permanent injunction
- Board discusses PERB Decision No. 3017 in open session and takes no action
Funding
District general fund. Every board agenda carries a standing consent item paying three outside law firms - Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo; Margaret A. Chidester & Associates; and Tao Rossini, APC - and outside counsel from Advocates for Faith & Freedom and the Liberty Justice Center also appear on closed-session listings.
AB 495 student release safeguards
Adopted and in force since November 2025California's AB 495, the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025, took effect on January 1, 2026 and widened the ability of non-parent adults to act for a child using a Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit. The board's answer was Resolution 2025/2026-22, adopted unanimously on November 20, 2025, which requires each school to name two trained officials to check affidavits, requires government photo ID, requires staff to try the parent by phone, text and email and document every attempt before releasing a child, and forbids release where the affidavit is doubtful or the child does not recognise the adult.
- Board president announces a November proposal codifying existing practice in response to AB 495
- Resolution 2025/2026-22 adopted 5-0
- AB 495 takes effect statewide
Funding
No separate funding identified in the collected record; implemented through existing school office staffing
Recent news
Built from the 29 official documents Chino Valley Unified published on its own board page between September 2025 and August 2026: 15 board agenda packets, 10 sets of approved minutes, the 2026-2027 bell schedule and three standing board policies. The agenda packets are full board packets of 130,000 to 380,000 characters each and carry the staff reports, resolutions, fiscal impact statements and, as a consent attachment, the approved minutes of the previous meeting. That is how the November 2025, December 2025 and March 2026 minutes were read even though those meetings' own minutes files were not collected. All 29 documents carried extractable text; none needed optical character recognition and none was unreadable.
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